


Beginning the Loop

by Washedawaycloud



Series: Ripples of Bad Wolf [7]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Loss, Referenced Time War (Doctor Who), The Moment is Bad Wolf, Time War (Doctor Who), Time War Angst (Doctor Who), end of the time war, hivemind collapse shock, rose is the moment, timey wimey talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:46:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29056917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Washedawaycloud/pseuds/Washedawaycloud
Summary: We know the Doctor's story. Now it's time for the start of the Corsair's.
Series: Ripples of Bad Wolf [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2050176
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Beginning the Loop

When the woman with yellow blonde hair and yellow-gold eyes sends her into the abyss the Corsair is livid. Fix this? Hadn’t calculated for this? There was nothing to fix or calculate for! Esperanza chimes in her mind, a weak presence, panicking. She tries to reach for her ship, her beautiful ship.

“I’m sorry, but it’s going to burn.” That voice.

All at once, she is in a room of oak and, she sighs, more gold. The Corsair never thought she’d ever be tired of the color but right now it is her least favorite on the infinite spectrum, no matter if this is more rose-toned than yellow. The woman, the Moment is there in front of her. How she wants to lunge and beat the interface into oblivion.

“Please don’t try it. I don’t know what will happen and you need me intact a while longer. Paradox – Causality loops. They need to be –“

“Yeah, I know how it works.” The Corsair snaps. “So I’m where, exactly?”

A slight smile from the golden-haired Moment interface. “Technically, nowhere. Technically, everywhere. The only way to keep you alive was to do what I did to myself. I scattered myself, so you’re scattered until we come back to the Moment, or until the Bad Wolf activates. I can’t tell, it’s all jumbled. This timeline, it’s not what made me.”

Her mind whirls with possibilities. The Corsair, unlike her husband, had excelled in her training, devoured knowledge more readily than most. She wanted it all, needed to know how all of this worked. It’s partially why she left, need to know how it works to improve it. Need to prove the Time Lords wrong in their superiority. “We’re at the very start of the loop, then. Paradox until it’s bent back and we can move forward.”

“You. You move forward, I become inert again, I think.” For the interface, it’s clear they are not used to being awake like this. Passively awake, sure, but communicating?

“Wait –“ Her hearts pound, “my ship!”

“She won’t survive, I’m sorry. But there’s one out there –“

“I’ve been growing coral for _centuries_ none of them –“

“Stop interrupting me!”

“She’s part of me and she is dying!” The Corsair claps her hands over her ears. The screaming, the shrieking. It’s more than just Esperanza. Her knees hit the ground and she curls in on herself. “Other and Omega –“

“They’re burning.” Cold hands press against her own. “I can’t shield you from it. He’s regenerating from the shock you’ll feel it –“

She screams.

And screams.

And screams.

Her bond is on fire, straining so tight she’s not sure she can breathe. It’s never been like this before. They’ve both regenerated and dialed back and regenerated again and it’s never been like this. “Make – make it stop.”

“I can’t. Not if you want to be with him again someday.”

The Corsair doesn’t know when she stops screaming. She just vaguely comes back to awareness, tastes blood in her mouth. She is lying on that w- the interface’s knees. Hands stroke over her hair. Whispered song.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

She tries to speak and cannot. She doesn’t move, what’s the point.

“You’re going into shock, I don’t – I don’t know what to do.” Panic floods her. Not her own. Who?

“Oh. Oh, I guess we see this now. See you. Keep you sane.” Understanding, sadness, fear. Who?

“Me. Original me. There’s more than one at this point. There are so many possible versions, strings of time and possibility. We see you, all of us with this eventuality.”

Oh. That makes as much sense as eating a mudpie. She closes her eyes and finds herself with the Doctor. Sleep seems like a grand idea.


End file.
